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DETROIT 



A SKETCH PREPAEED FOE THE USE OF THE 

DELEGATES TO THE INTERNATIONAL 

AMERICAN CONGRESS 



BY THE SECRETARY - : f^Aoovi) 

OP THE 

DETROIT. COMMITTEE OF ENTERTAINMENT for -V-K^ A.ft\. 



DETROIT 
OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH 

1889 



F57f 



DKTKOIT, MICincAX : 
Pkinted and BoiND i!Y RavnoI! t»c Tayi.ui: 

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COI^TENTS 



I. Letter from Special Agent of tlie State Department, 
William E. Curtis, . . - - 

II. Letter from Mayor Pridgeon, appointing a Citizens 
Committee of Entertainment, 

IIL Work of the Citizens' Committee and the Programme 
for the Visit of Delegates, 

IV. List of Delegates to the Conference, - 

V. Detroit — A Sketch. - , - - - 

VL Some INIanufactures of Detroit, 



9 

10 
13 
25 



DEPAETME^T OF STATE 

Intkknational American Congress. 

t Washington, Aiii>ust 24, 1881). 

To THE Hon. John Pridgeon, Jr., 

Mayor of Detroit. 

Sir: — I am directed by the Secretary of State to inform 
you that the excursion tendered to the foreign delegates to 
the International American Congress will reach Detroit from 
Cleveland at 7 A. M., October 17th, and will remain there 
until 3 P. M., M'hen they leave for Ann Arbor to visit the 
University. I shall be glad if you will confer with the offi- 
cers of your commercial bodies as to the appointment of a 
committee for the reception and entertainment of these dis- 
tinguished visitors The party will number about seventy- 
five, and will include some of the most distinguished men 
in Central and South America. Be good enough to inform 
me at your earliest convenience what i^rogramme will be 
arranged by your citizens. 

I have the honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM E. CUKTIS, 

Special Agent, DepH of Slate. 
(7) 



II. 

CITY OF DETROIT. 

Mayor's Office. 

Detroit, Mich., Sept. 10, 1881). 
Hon. James McMillan, 

Dear Sir: — In conforiuunce witli a resolution offered by 
W. E. Tarrand, and adopted by the citizens present at a 
public meeting in the Mayor's office, on the 9th inst., I was 
empowered to appoint a committee, whose duty it shall be 
to make all necessary airun<;('inents for ieceivin<>- and enter- 
taining the foreign delegates to the International American 
Congress, upon the occasion of their visit to Detroit, Octo- 
ber 17tli uext ; nnd also to niraiige for a suitable exhibit 
of the commercial and manufactuiing resoui-ces of Detroit. 

I have the honor and pleasure of announcing youi- ap 
pointment upon this committee, which is as follows : 

Hon. JAMES MiMILLAN, Chairman. 
Hon. J. LOGAN CHIPMAN, JOHN N. BAGLEY, 
GEORGE H. RUSSEL, GEORGE H. BARBOUR, 

W. R. FARRAND, CHARLES WRIGHT, 

JOSEPH NICHOLSON. 

Trusting that you will find it agreeable and convenient 
to act, I am, 

Very truly yours, 

JOHN PRIDGEON, Jr. 

(S) 



iir. 
THE PEOGEAMME. 

THE Citizen's Committee held several meetings at the 
ofiftce of the chairman, United States Senator James 
McMillan. Tlie following sub committees were appointed : 

To arrange the route and prepare a list of the places to 
visit: William E. Farrand, Cti:orge H. Barbour, Cap- 
tain Joseph Nicholson. 

Finance: George H. Eussel, John N. Bagley. 

0)1 Invitations and Beception: Hon. J. Logan Chipman, 
Charles Wright, Geokge H. Barbour. 

Charles Moore was appointed secretary, with instruc- 
tions to prepare, under the snpervision of the committee, a 
sketch of Detroit and of the leading manufacturing indus- 
tries of the city. 

Senator McMillan informed the committee that he would 
be pleased to entertain the delegates at luncheon, on the 
day of their visit, and to invite a number of citizens to 
meet them. Accordingly, this programme was arranged : 

8:00 A. M Leave Micliigan Central Station by the Belt Line Railroad. 

Michigan Car Works, 30 minutes' 
8.4-5 " Bay City Junction. 

9.00 " Farrand & Votey Organ Factory, 20 minutes. 

10.00 '• Beaufait Station (take carriages). 

1010 " Michigan Stove Works, 30 minutes 

10.50 " Parke, Davis & Company, Drug Manufactory, 30 minutes. 

11.35 " Detroit Safe Company, 20 minutes. 

12.20 p. M. Pingree & Smith's Siioe Factory. 
12.55 " D. M. Ferry Company's Seed Warehouse. 

1.25 " Drive around Grand Circus Park and back by way of Wood- 

ward and Jefferson Avenues, to Senator McMillan's resi- 
dence for luncheon, arriving there at 2 o'clock 
3.30 '' Take the train for Ann Arbor. 

(9) 



IV. 



DELEGATES TO THE CONFERENCE. 

THE delegates to the conference between tlie United 
States and the Republics of Mexico, Central and 
South America, and Brazil are as follows : 

Argentine Republic. — Delegates, Roque Saenz Pena, 
Manuel Quintana ; secretary, Federico Pinedo. 

Bolivia. — Delegate, Juan F . Velarde; secretary, 
Melchor Okarrio ; attaclics. Alcihl\des Velarde, 
Marino Velarde. 

Brazil. — Delegates, Lafayette Rodriguez Peraira, 
J. G. deAmaral Valente, Salvador de Mendonca ; 
secretaries, Jose Agosto Ferkeiha de Costa, Joaquim 
DE Frietas Vascoxceli-es ; attaclias, Alfredo de Moraes 
Gomez Ferreira, Cori^os Silviera Martino, Mario de 
Mendonca. 

Chili— Br. Varas. 

Colombia. — Delegates, Carlos Martinez Silva, Climaco 
Calderon ; secretaries, Jula Rengofo, Martin Amador. 

Costa Rica. — Delegate, Manuel Aragon ; secretary, 
Joaquin Bernardo Calvo. 

i;g;Mfl(Zor— Delegate, Jose Maria Carnaano. 

Guatemala. — Delegate, Fernando Cruz ; secretary, 
Domingo Estrada ; attache, Javir Arroyo. 

Honduras. — Delegate, Jeronimo Zelaya ; secretaries, 
F. Constantino Fiallos, Richard Villafranca. 

(10) 



Jtoico.— Delegates, Matias Eomero, J. N. Navarro, 

Joseph E. Yvs Limantour ; secretary, Adolpho Mujicay 

Sayago. 

Xicaragiia — Delegate, Horatio Guzman; attache, E. 

Mavorga. 

Paraguay — 

P^,.,f, —Delegate, F. ( l C. Zegarra ; secretary, Alberto 
Falcon. 

^aZvarfor.— Delegates, Jacinto Castellanos and Samuel 
Valdivieso. 

Vraguay—jyeXegixie, Alberto Nin ; secretary, Henry 

Dauber. 

Fene^we/«.— Delegates, Francisco Antonis Silva, 
Nioanor Bolet Peraza, Jose Andrade. 

United ^fa/cs.— Delegates, John E. Henderson, C'orne- 
Lius N. Bliss, Charles E. Flint, Clement Studebaker, 
T. Jefferson Coolidge, William Henry Trescott, 
Andrew Carnegie, Morris M. Estee, John F. Hanson, 
Henry G. Davis ; William E. Curtis, special agent 
Department of State, in charge ; attaches, John G. Bourke, 
captain U. S. A. ; Henry E. Lemley, first lientenant 
U. S. A. ; George M Sternberg, snrgeon U. S. A. ; 
Edmund W. P. Smith, Edward A. Trescott. 

Representing the Spanish- American Commercial Utiiun, F. G. 

PlERRA. 

(11) 



DETROIT 



DETROIT 



A SKETCH. 

WHILE the Spaniards were establish ing themselves 
ill the vast country west and south of the Missis- 
sippi, and the English were planting colonies between the 
Atlantic ocean and the Allegheny mountains, the French 
were engaged in securing for themselves the regions along 
the St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes, with the 
ultimate intention of possessing themselves also of the 
Mississippi valley. La Salle, boldest and most resolute of 
French exploivrs, was the tirst to navigate the Detroit river 
in a ship; and Father Hennepin, in his "Travels," has 
told how grateful to the tempest- tossed voyagers were the 
quiet waters and smiling banks of the Detroit, after the 
perils of Lake P^rie. This was in 1679 ; and twenty-two 
years later Cadillac founded the town of Detroit, to answer 
the two-fold purpose of a French trading-post and a strate- 
gic i^oint against the incursions of the Iroquois Indians, 
who were the friends of the English and the enemies of 
the Hurons, the red allies of the French. 

The fall of the French power in America transferred 
Detroit to the control of the English. During the short 
period between the defeat of Montcalm on the Plains of 





11^ l!SM%^' 









^ 







THE SIECE OF PONTIAC. 17 



Abraham and the American Revolution, the little town was 
called npon to withstand a siege maintained by Pontiac, 
one of the bravest and by all odds the ablest leader 
who ever appeared among tlie Indians of Xorth America 
Dnring the six long months from May to October, 1763, 
the fate of the English settlements all along the western 
border depended on the energy, bravery and sagacity of 
Major Gladwyn, the English officer in charge at Detroit. 
Eomance loves to tell how a brave and beautiful Indian 
girl betrayed to her lover, the commandant, the plot for 
the surprise and massacre of the garrison ; and how Pontiac, 
just as he was about to give the signal for the slaughter, 
heard the roll of the drum and saw- the double guards 
ready to shoot him and his treacherous fellows, if they 
should show the least signs of hostile intent. Francis Park- 
man, one of the most brilliant of American historians, has 
made ^^The Conspiracy of Pontiac" the title of two of his 
most fascinating volumes. The :\Iichigan Stove Woi-ks now 
stands in Bloody Run, where Pontiac's forces laid an ambush 
for the English soldiers, and in the cool of the morning 
slaughtered them like sheep. Pontiac made his home on Peach 
Island, in Lake St. Clair; and tradition has it that one of 
the first victims of the affray lived on Belle Isle, the present 
city park, and that from his grave an arm kept protruding 
until the mangled body was given Christian burial. 

During the American Revolution, the English used 
Detroit as a head-quarters for scalping parties of Indians, 
sent out to ravage the borders. Bnt George Rogers Clark, 
a Virginia pioneer, with a baud of brave backwoodsmen, 



BULL'S SURRENDER. 19 



made such a successful campaigu iu the north-west that 
when peace was made with England, the Great Lakes were 
held to be the national boundary. Detroit's troubles, how- 
ever, did not end with American independence. During 
the war of 1812 with Great Britain, the commanding officer 
here was General and Governor William Hull, who was so 
afraid the Indian allies of the British would scalp the slain 
and torture and burn at the stake the captives, that he 
surrendered the city. For this cowardice he was sentenced 
to be shot; but on account of his brave record in the Eevo- 
Intion, his life was spared. The campaigns of General — 
afterwards President — William Henry Harrison, the grand- 
father of the present Chief Executive of the United States, 
restored Detroit to the American arms. Thus it has hap- 
pened that dnring the first century and a quarter of her 
existence, Detroit changed her flag five times; and in 1810 
the town was completely destroyed by fire. Few cities in 
the United States have had such an eventful history. 

The close of the War of 1812 left iu command at Detroit 
General Lewis Cass, then young and ambitious. He was 
appointed Governor of the Territory of Michigan, and for 
sixteen years devoted all his energies to securing the Indian 
titles to the lands of the north-west. By treaty he obtained 
for the United States Government the titles to most of the 
territory which is now included in the States of Michigan, 
Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. On the spot where the 
great western metropolis of Chicago now stands, Governor 
Cass, in 1820, made a treaty with a few Indians cpiartered 
at a small trading-post Thus rapid has been the develop- 
ment of the West. 



20 CASS AND CHANDLER. 

General Cass was successively Secretary of War and 
Minister to France under President Jackson's administra- 
tion, a Senator of the United States fiom Michigan, an 
unsuccessful candidate for President on tlie Democratic 
ticket in 1848, and Secretary of State in President Buchan- 
an's administration. He was the most distinguished citizen 
Michigan has produced; and in the Xational Portrait (Jal- 
lery in the Capitol at Wtishington, among the unheroic 
looking eftigies of American heroes, one may see a really 
line statue, by Daniel C. French, of General Cass, as the 
typical statesman of the period when tlie Union was being 
strengthened and built up to withstand the shock of civil 
war. 

The second place allotted to Michigan in the American 
Valhalla will be assigned by tacit consent to Zachariah 
Chandler, a Senator from Michigan during the rise of anti- 
slavery agitations throughout the war of the rebellion. Mr. 
Chandler was one of those vigorous, uncompromising 
characters who plowed their way through the dangers and 
obstacles of war times, and whose sturdy good sense, con- 
stant aggressiveness and enormous energy made him one of 
the great party leaders of his country. The Chandler statue 
is a work for the future ; but in the minds of Michigan 
people Cass and Chandler are the two heroic characters in 
the history of the State. 

When in 1825 the Erie Canal was completed through the 
State of New York, Michigan was rapidly filled with set 
tiers from that State and from New England. The young 
men who had learned the lumber business on the rapid 



COPPER, IRON, SALT, LUMBER. 21 

Audroscoggin in Maine and the broad Merrimac of New 
Hampshire, came to Michigan and made large fortunes 
from the vast pineries of this State. Youths who had been 
brought up on the rocky lands of New England rejoiced to 
find the fertile prairies and the beautiful oak groves of 
southern Michigan, and AA'ere not to be driven out of so 
rich a possession even by the fever and ague. 

Even in those prehistoric days, when the Indians, whose 
story has yet to be discovered, roamed both the American 
hemispheres, the copper mines of Lake Superior had been 
worked ; but it has remained for our own day and genera- 
tion to take from those mines three-fourths of the copper 
used in the United States and a goodly proportion of that 
which Europe uses. Iron mines, wonderful in extent and 
richness, are also found in the Upper Peninsula of Michi- 
gan ; and the richest salt wells in the country are in the 
Saginaw valley and along the St. Clair river Such is the 
firm puritanical foundation on which the metropolis of 
Michigan stands. 

Detroit abounds in all that goes to make a city pleasant 
to live in. Her streets are broad and well shaded ; her 
many fine residences are surrounded with ample grounds, 
instead of being built together in blocks ; her broad river 
affords ample opportunities for pleasure and sport ; her 
public schools are of a high order ; she has a large public 
library and a fine museum of art ; her island park is as 
beautiful as it is unique; her society is cultivated without 
being pedantic and is hospitable and not too exclusive ; 
her charities are many and efdcienfc. 



22 



THE DETROIT OF TO-DAY. 




'\i 




\^t^ , 









I J^t?s-r>' 




I)t IKOIl AIISFUM 



Detroit is not aloue a delightful city to live in ; she is 

also an excel- 
lent city to 
make money 
in. Indeed, 
the two things 
usually go to 
get her, when 
one comes to 
get at the bot- 
toni ol" the 
matter. 

The Detroit 
Board of Edu- 
cation has under its charge 46 schools, which accommodate 
21,000 pupils. Besides these public schools there are numer- 
ous private schools that have an attendance of about 11,000 
pupils. The public schools cost the taxpayers of the city 
about $400,000 annually ; and there is also received from 
the State $94, 74"2, Detroit's proportion of the annual interest 
on the proceeds of the sales of public lands set apart for 
the support of primary schools. 

The debt of Detroit is only $640,000, and the rate of 
taxation is 14.29 mills on the dollar. Two years ago the 
city was practically out of debt ; and the present indebted- 
ness represents recent improvements. The population of 
the city is between 250,000 and 270,000; and the annual 
increase exceeds 10,000. 



MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY. 23 



The Jesuit missionaries of France, whose heroism led 
them to water the soil of Michigan with their martyr 
blood, strove hard to found in the north-west a new Para- 
gnay ; the French and English ti-aders looked no further 
than to make it a land of trading posts ; but the American 
commonwealth-builders, beginning with George Washington 
himself, saw clearly that the fertile lauds of the lake region 
were destined to be the seat of the most populous States 
and the dwelling place of future millions. In their almost 
prophetic wisdom, they provided in that great charter of 
western rights, the Ordinance of 1787, that ''Religion, 
morality, and knowledge being necessary to good govern- 
ment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
of education shall forever be encouraged." 

From the appropriations of lands given for educational 
purposes to carry out the spirit of the ordinance, came 
endowments which, together with State aid, have estab- 
lished, maintained and Imilt up Michigan University, at 
Ann Arbor. This great and growing institution, with its 
two thousand students, is the head of a system of free, 
public instruction that begins in the primary schools of the 
State, and continues step by step until the university course 
has been completed. Then there are schools of laM', medi- 
cine, pharmacy, engineering and the mechanical arts. 

It is a source of profound pride to the people of Michi- 
gan that this State, in providing for the education of her 
own youth, has drawn no narrow lines. Not only has the 
instruction of her own youth been provided for, but the 
same advantages have been offered practically free to stu- 



24 



A COSMOPOLITAN INSTITUTION. 



dents from otlier States, and even from otliei' nations ; so 
that liere in tlie Xorthwest a university lias been bnilt up, 
to which has gathered its pupils, even from Europe and 
from Asia, and whose doors will swing as gladly to the 
young men and young Momen of the American nations of 
the South as they do to the sons and daughters of the citi- 
zens of Michii-an. 




in THf CA/lAL 



VI. 



SOME MANUFACTUEES OF DETEOIT. 



NOTE. 



There are certain manufactures of Detroit foi- wliicli the 
city is famous throughout the United States and in several 
foreign countries. There are others which are sure to 
make an extended reputation. Obviously the limits of this 
book allow but a brief mention of some of our larger 
commercial institutions ; and it has been extremely difficult 
to draw the line. The case for Detroit herein presented 
must be taken to be stated without prejudice to those 
institutions which must of necessity be omitted. 

The compiler desires to acknowledge his indebtedness 
to the clothing house of Mabley & ('ompany for their 
courtesy in allowing him to use several illustrations from 
"Detroit As She Is," published by that firm. 

C. M. 

Detroit, October 10, 1889. 



SOME ma:n^ufactuees of detkoit. 



TH E broad river which flows by six miles of busy 
wharves, is one of the greatest highways known to 
commerce. The tonnage passing through the Suez Canal is 
much less than that which passes through the great govern- 
ment locks at Sault Ste. Marie, where two vessels three 
hundred feet in length are at one time lifted from the 
level of Lake Huron to that of Lake Superior, in thir- 
teen minutes. Througli the government canal through the 
shallows at the mouth of the St. Clair river, twenty miles 
above Detroit, and j^ast the city itself, goes the iron and 
copper from Lake Superior, the wheat and flour from 
Chicago and Minneapolis, the lumber and salt from the 
Saginaw valley, and the coal from Pennsylvania. Over 
forty thousand vessels pass by Detroit every year ; while 
but fifteen thousand find their way into the harbor of New 
York. Over three million passengers are carried on the 
Detroit ferries and other boats every year. 

The railroad facilities of Detroit are such as to favor 
her continued growth as a manufacturing center. Situated 
on two trunk lines between New York and Chicago, the 
manufacturers of this city also have access to all parts of 
the State by means of the Michigan Central and its varied 



THE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. 29 

brauch Hues, the Chicago and Grand Trunk, tlie Detroit 
Lansing and Northern, the Lake Shore and Michigan 
Southern, the Flint and Pere Marquette, and the Detroit, 
Grand Haven and Milwanlvce. The south-western trade is 
reached over the WabavSh. Ground has already been pur- 
chased for a new Union Depot, to be used by the Canadian 
Pacific ; the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern, and probably 
by the lines of the great Pennsylvania Railroad. Securing 
the entrance of these railway lines is looked upon as one 
of the most important steps of advancement the city has 
ever taken. 

The banks of Detroit have a capital of $6,975,200; hold 
a surplus of $1,200,000, and have deposits of $47,000,000. 
It is the experience of Detroit manufacturers that in the 
Detroit market money is much cheaper, and the rates of 
discount are much steadier than in the markets of New 
York, Chicago, and other cities where large speculation 
in stocks tends to produce sharj) though temx)orary strin- 
gencies. 

An annual fair and exposition, which had its first 
highly successful exhibition this year, is the means of 
bringing to the city hundreds of thousands of people from 
Michigan and the adjacent States and from Canada, greatly 
to the advantage of all kinds of trade and manufactures. 

In reviewing hastily some of the leading industries of 
Detroit, we may well begin with the largest one — the 
manufacture of cars. 

The Michigan Car Company is the head of a series of 
corporations, which go to make up the most gigantic net- 



30 DETROITS GREATEST INDUSTRY. 

work of c'OMiniercial enterprises in Michigan. Traversing 
the wikls of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, carrying the 
wheat and flour from Duluth, on its way to the seaboard, 
carrying the copper of Keeweenaw Point and the iron from 
the Gogebic regions, is the Dulutli, South Shore and Atlan- 
tic railroad. Among the lines of steamers M'hicli carry ore 
from the Lake Superior ports to the furnaces below are, 
the Hamlramck. the Detroit, and the Duluth and Atlantic 
Transportation Companies. In Detroit's suburb — llani- 
tramck — is the Detroit Iron Furnace Company, which 
mannfactures the Lake Superior ii-on ore into charcoal pig- 
iron for car- wheel and malleable use. Part of the outinit 
is taken by the Baugh Steam Forge Company, which turns 
out one hundred car axles and sixty tons of bar iron each 
day. Anothei- portion goes to Detroit Car Wheel Company, 
which produces nearly four hun<bed and twenty-five car 
wheels daily. Lastly comes the Michigan Car Company, to 
which the work of railroad, vessels, furnaces and forges is 
brought, and the result is thirty finished freight cars each 
day. These cars vary in style from the simple flat car to 
the highly finished and carefnlly made patent refrigerator 
cars, in which the beef and dairy products of the fertile 
west are conveyed to the great cities of the east. 

The head of each and all these corporations is James 
McMillan, who, starting with three others in 1864, on a 
capital of $20,000, has built up a business that emi^loys 
over three thousand men all the year around. Mr. McMil- 
lan is also the president of the Detroit Pipe and Foundry 
Company, which manufactures gas and water pipes for cus- 



THE MANUFACTURE OF CARS. 31 

tomeis in many States ; and of the Detroit and Cleveland 
Steam liTavigation Company, wliicli operates the two lines 
of finest passenger and tVeight steamers on the lakes — the 
line from Detroit to Cleveland and that from Detroit to 
Michigan's beantifnl summer resort, the historic island of 
Mackinac. 

The Peninsular Car Works was incorporated December, 

1879, by Messrs. C. H. Buhl, E. A. Alger, James F. Joy, 
Frank J. Hecker, Hiram Walker, Frederick Buhl and C. 
L. Freer. The old Detroit Car Works property was leased 
for a term of five years, and operations began January 1, 

1880. Previous to the expiration of the lease, the Penin- 
sular Car Company was organized, and the ground now 
occupied by it was purchased, buiUliugs erected and opera- 
tions began January 1, 1885. The present plant covers 
thirty four acres of ground, on wliicli suitable buildings for 
the construction of freight cars and the operation of found- 
ries have been built. 

The capacity is now nine thousand cars in the shops, 
eighty five thousand car wheels and eighteen thousand tons 
of car castings in the foundries per annum. At the close 
of the year the company will have built forty-nine thou- 
sand freight cars of the various classes used in the freight 
equipment of railroad companies. Their present consump- 
tion of material is at the rate of twenty-seven million feet 
of timber and lumber, forty thousand tons of pig iron and 
eighteen thousand tons of wrought iron and forgings per 
annum. Their force -rolls during the year show between 
one thousand three hundred and one thousand four hundred 



32 CAR WHEELS. 



operatives employed. The company Las constructed during 
tlie year cars for the following prominent railroad compa- 
nies : Nortliern Pacific ; Union Pacific ; Chicago, Eock Island 
and Pacific ; Pennsylvania Pailroad Company ; Pittsburgh, 
Cincinnati and St. Louis , Xew York, Lake Erie and West- 
ern ; Chicago and North-Western ; Lake Shore and Michigan 
Southern ; Michigan Central ; Denver and Eio Grande. 

The present officers of the company are Frank J. Hecker, 
president and C. L. Freer, vice-president and treasurer. 

The Eussel Wheel and Fonndi-y Company, of which 
George II. Eussel is president, manufactures logging, min- 
ing, mill, cane and wood cars, car wheels, castings and 
machinery. Jiesides its business in wheels, the company 
tu)-ns out about two thousand cars a year, and when the 
home demand is not too pressing, it fills orders for the 
South American trade. 

The Grif&n Car Wheel Company, organized in 1877, 
turns out about 300 car wheels a day, and also has a capa- 
city for fifty tons of soft castings. The works give employ- 
ment to between two and three hundred skilled men. 
Thomas I. Griffin, the President of the Company, began the 
manufacture of car wheels in Buffalo, in 1845 ; and the 
Detroit works are connected with like cori)orations in Chi- 
cago, Buffalo, and St. Thomi\s, Ont. 

In the manufacture of Stoves, Detroit leads all other 
cities in the United States. The three companies here 
employ over four thousand men, and the annual product of 
their labors amounts to upwards of $3,000,000. The com- 
panies have branch houses in the leading cities, and with 



THE STOVE WORKS. 33 



steady strides the Detroit cold-killers have invaded South 
America, Swedeu, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France 
and Euii'land. Each coinpany has its peculiar styles, each 
kind hearing- an appropriate name. 

At the Michigan Stove Works, of which Jeremiah 
Dwyer is president, sixteen thousand tons of iron are annu- 
ally turned into sixty thousand stoves and ranges by fifteen 
hundi'ed workmen. At tlic Detroit Stove Works, under the 
presidency of K. S. Harltoui-, a like numl)er of men are 
engaged in making the various kinds of stoves and ranges.- 
The Peninsular Stove ('onii>any, organized in ISSl, with 
William B. ]\Iorau as presith'ut, employs seven hundred and 
fifty men and has an annual product of twenty-five thou- 
sand stoves, ranges, furnaces and heaters. 

All of these companies vie with eacli other and with 
their competitors in other cities to produce the most artistic 
work. Beauty and richness of finish are sought for no less 
than excellent heating capacity, and the magnitude of the 
business shows how very successful they have been. The 
total annual product of the three works is not less than 
$2,500,000. 

The manufacture of white lead and colors, although 
comparatively a new industry in Detroit, is making rapid 
progress. The Acme works, of which W. L. Davis is 
president, began in 1884 and now employs 100 men in the 
manufacture of dry and mixed paints, white leads, zincs 
and putties. They have branches in New York, San 
Francisco and in Ingersoll, Ontario, and their carriage 
paint, granite floor paint, sash paint, interior fresco paints, 



34 THE WHITE LEAD INDUSTRY. 

wagon and implement paint, and other kinds find a large 
sale in Australia, New Zealautl and the Sandwich Islands, 
as well as in the United States. 

The Peninsular White Lead and Color Works, organized 
by the wholesale drug firm of Farrand, Williams & Com- 
pany, are corroders of white lead and manufacturers of dry 
colors, vermillions, coach colors, tinted leads, ready -mixed 
paints and carriage paints. The company corrodes their own 
white lead by the old Dutch process, and manufacture 
their own vermillion and dry colors ; and the quality of 
their goods adapts them to the most severe use in winter. 

The Detroit White Lead Works, of which Ford D. C. 
Hinchman is the jiresident, besides manufacturing a full 
line of paints and varnishes, makes several specialties 
which have met decided wants. Among these are a fine 
carriage black put up for indi\ idual use ; domestic paints, 
put up in pint and half-pint cans, especially adapted for 
household use ; and a line of quick drying and hard, tough 
and durable floor paints. The company has branch houses 
in Montreal, Milwaukee and Canada. 

The house of Boydell Brothers, established in 1865 by 
John Boydell, manufactures white lead, zinc, putty, colors 
and prepared paints of a high quality. 

One of the most notable instances of western enterprise 
is the birth and growth of the great varnish house of 
Berry Brothers. The firm is composed of Joseph H. and 
Thomas Berry ; and their establishment is located at the 
foot of Lieb street, on the Detroit river. Besides the spa- 
cious offices and shipping department there are the canning 



VARNISHES. 35 



and labeling-room, seven large storage tank rooms, differ- 
ent departments for melting gnm, manufactnring Japan, 
black varnishes, spirit varnishes and preparing oil ; labora- 
tory, testing and finishing room. Also there is a three- 
story structnre, in whicli are placed the many pnmps for 
distributing the product of the factory among the numerons 
tanks in the seven storage rooms. The building is also 
devoted to the bleaching of shellac. 

Like many other successful western enterprises, the house 
of Berry r>rothers' began business on a very modest scale. 
Confined at first to a iew dealers in town, their trade soon 
assumed large proportions, and the next few years found 
Berry Brothers emerged from local obscurity and well 
known throughout their own and adjoining States. There 
are now eight flourishing branches located at New York, 
Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. 
Louis and San Francisco. 

The running capacity of tlie factory is fifteen thousand 
gallons of varnish and Japan daily, or about four and a 
half million galkns per annum, and the aggregate storage 
capacity is upwards of five hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand gallons. Tank Room No. 1, in which the firm keep 
most of their fine varnishes while undergoing the necessary 
process of ripening, contains twenty-one tanks of two thou- 
sand gallons each, or forty- two thousand gallons in all, 
the money value of the product stored in this room aggre- 
gating the respectable sum of 1168,000. The firm manufac- 
ture all grades of varnish, from the finest railway and 
carriage varnishes to the cheapest grades of goods, asphal- 







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A GREAT SEED HOUSE. 37 



turn, dryers, bakin": Japans, shellacs, etc. In connection 
\vith ''hard oil finish," which they invented and placed 
npon the market fifteen years ago, the name and fame of 
Berry Brothers has become national. 

In addition to the manufacture of varnishes, the firm 
are placing upon the market a very high grade of bleached 
shellac. Being themselves heavy consumers of the article, 
and becoming dissatisfied with irregular quality of the pro- 
duct furnished them, they determined a year or two ago to 
do their own bleaching, intending merely to manufacture 
sufficient for their own needs. Adopting the most modern 
and approved process, and with the aid of the best 
machinery, appliances and skilled help, they have succeeded 
in turning out an article of bleached shellac so superior to 
the ordinary commercial article that a large and growing 
demand for it has resulted. A force of thirty salesmen is 
kept on the road, and their product is shipped to Great 
Britain, Canada, and they have a large and growing trade 
with Cuba and South America. 

No other seed house in the United States does so large a 
business as does the D. M. Ferry Seed Company. Their new 
building, which occupies half a block in the heart of the 
city of Detroit, is used as the head quarters of a trade 
that keeps ninety men traveling to sell the products of the 
hundreds on hundreds of acres of seed farms on which the 
company grow the finest seeds that the most expert seeds- 
men can raise During the busy season fifteen hundred 
people are employed in and about Detroit, while special 
growers all over the country are employed to devote their 



38 SAFES AND ENAMELED CASKS. 

best energies to the service of the firm. The success of 
this business has been simply enormous ; and so urgent 
have been the home demands tliat the company has not 
found opportunity to go further than Canada for trade ; but 
the manner in which the seeds are ]iacked in boxes assorted 
for various conditions of soil and climate, make an exten- 
sion of the business into foreign fields only a matter of 
ability to supply the markets. 

The Detroit Safe Company enjoys a high reputation not 
only at home but also in South America, Mexico, England, 
China and Japan. It has l)i;uu'h houses in Boston, St. 
Louis, Louisville, St. Paul, Atlanta and San Francisco ; and 
its annual product of three thousand safes, besides bank 
vaults, tire proof cells and other kinds of jail work employs 
about four hundred men. The company also manufactures 
the Sargent glass enameled steel cask, used in connection 
with the vacuum process of ripening beer, by which method 
the results of nu)nths of storage are ol)tained in a few days. 
These casks are also used with success in the manufacture 
of wines, in preserving fruit and in turning cider into 
Champagne cider. William B. Wesson is the president of 
the company. 

The tobacco manufactories of Detroit have a product 
of 14,000,000 annually, and the cigar output is another 
$2,000,000. Daniel Scotten & Co. manufacture plug, fine- 
cut and smoking tobaccos. The business was established 
in 1856, and from the beginning Mr. Scotten has been at 
the head of it. The output of this house is 7,000,000 pounds 
a year. 



TOBACCO INDUSTRIES. 39 

In liis day, John J. Bagley was one of the most widely 
known men in the United States. The soldiers on the 
battle fields of the civil war were doubly fortified if they 
had a paper of his fine-cut with them — as they generally 
had ; and when he was governor of Michigan, from 1872 
to 1876, he was so generally popular that the people have 
set up a bust of him near the drinking-fountain for which 
he provided in his will. This fountain, by the way, was 
designed by the late H. H. Eichardson, the greatest archi- 
tect America has produced. Tlie tobaccos of the house of 
John J. Bagley & Co. go even to China, Japan and Aus- 
tralia. The president of the corporation is J. T. Mason. 

The Globe Tobacco Company, which is the outgrowth 
of a business started in 1871, Mas incorporated in 1880, 
with Thomas McGraw as president. Besides a large factory 
in Detroit, the company has a Canadian branch in Windsor, 
where cigarettes are made in great quantities. 

The American Eagle Tobacco Company can trace its 
origin back to the firm of K. C. Barker & Co., established 
in 1818, the oldest tobacco house in Detroit. About 300 
people are employed to make the fine cut, the smoking 
tobacco, and the other brands of the house. M. S. Smith 
is the president. 

The Banner Tobacco Company manufactures fine-cut, 
smoking tobaccos and cigars, and employ upwards of 150 
persons on their many brands. The president of the com- 
pany, M. B. Mills, is also the treasurer of the Michigan 
Stove Company. 



PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS. 41 

All the Detroit factories belong to the manufactories of 
the first class ; they are strong financiallj^ ; they use the 
very best of stock, and they have all the jjush and energy 
which belong to houses that have made successes in the 
face of hard comjietition. Tliey have made Detroit the 
second largest city in America for the production of 
fine- cut. 

The house of Parke, Davis & Company, manufacturing 
chemists, and importers and dealers in crude vegetable 
drugs, with laboi-atories and general offices at Detroit, and 
a large branch house in New York City, does a business 
enormous in amount and international in character. In 
the laboratories 040 highly skilled employes are engaged 
in the manufacture of standard medicinal products, fine 
pharmaceutical preparations, pressed herbs, and other like 
commodities. No other firm in the United States imports 
so many and deals so largely in crude drugs. The investi- 
gations into the properties of new drugs, carried on by 
this house, is in itself a great business, requiring the 
CO operation of scientists all over the country. The com- 
pany has regular agencies in London, Berlin, Geneva, 
Para. Caracas, the city of Mexico, Havana, Auckland, 
Sidney and Honolulu. The regular publications of the 
house are ''The Therapeutic Gazette," "The Medical Age," 
"The American Lancet," "The Medical Index," and "The 
Druggists' Bulletin." The firm also employs 150 persons 
in the manufacture of empty capsules. For the South Ameri- 
can trade the company has the services of a native Spaniard. 



42 DRUG MANUFACTURES. 

The firm of Charles Wright & Company employs two 
hundred and fifty persons in the preparation of a large and 
comprehensive line of family remedies, which are advertised 
and sold in all parts of the world. The house also manu- 
factures a line of pharmaceutical preparations of non secret 
remedies which are prepared under competent chemists, and 
whenever desired the formula is i^rinted on the package. 
There is a branch house at Windsor, Ontario. The head of 
the firm is Charles Wright, who, while yet a young man, 
has pushed the products of his firm into both the East and 
West Indies, South America, South Africa and Australia, 
besides covering the United States and the Territories. This 
house publishes the "• American Pharmacist." 

In 1876, Frederick Stearns, then the head of the house 
of Frederick Stearns & Company, manufacturing chemists 
— a position which he has lately yielded to his son, Frede- 
rick K. Stearns — began putting up a complete line of popular 
remedies, with the fornuilas printed on the labels, to take 
the place of the secret, or patent, medicines which were 
having so great a sale and often such dire results on the 
users. You may now find the Stearns' medicines in South 
America, in Korea, in Palestine, in Asia Minor, in Liberia 
and in the East and West Indies, while in this country 
they are known throughout the land. They import the 
crude drugs direct, and they keep traveling men in remote 
lands. There are branch houses in Windsor, Out., in San 
Francisco and in ^ew York. The house publishes ''The 
New Idea." 



ORGANS AND SHOES. 43 



At the United States Centennial Exposition in 1876 and 
at the Paris Exposition of 1878, the Clongh & Warren 
organs took respectively a diploma of honor and the grand 
prize medal. The distinctive feature of these organs — the 
feature that has caused mention to be made of them in the 
article on '^Harmonium," in the Encyclopedia Britanuica 
—is the patent qualifying tubes, which impart to a reed 
organ the volume and purity of tone having the character 
of the diapason in the pipe organ. The business of the 
firm extends to England, Spain, Germany, China, Japan and 
Australia, and there are branch houses in New York and 
London. 

The Farrand & Yotey Organ Company employs one hun- 
dred and thirty skilled workmen, and their factory has a 
capacity of five thousand two hundred organs a year. 
The company enjoys a large and increasing trade through- 
out the United States and makes regular shipments to Eng- 
land and the other countries of Europe, as well as to New 
Zealand and Australia. The president of the company is 
Elisha H. Flinn, and among the officers are William E. 
Farrand and E. S. A'otey, from whom the company takes 
its name. 

Two thousand pairs of boots, shoes and slippers are 
manufactured daily by Pingree & Smith, some seven hun- 
dred persons being employed in the work ; H. P. Baldwin 
2d & Company employ from fifty to seventy five persons in 
the manufacture of boots ; and W. S. Robinson, Burteushaw 
& Company give employment to about four hundred hands 
in the manufacture of fine shoes for men, women and child- 



SHIP BUILDING. 45 



reu, A. C. McGraw & Company are also large manuftic- 
turers of boots and shoes. Detroit's shoe industry is gauged 
by sales amounting to $2,000,000 a year. 

The Detroit Dry Dock Company builds the splendid pas- 
senger and the x^owerful freight steamers that navigate the 
lakes. The Company take a contract, for example, to build 
and equip a 2,500 ton comj)osite propeller ready for sea. 
Every least detail of furnishing is looked after. The ves- 
sels are usually built of both iron and wood, on a steel 
frame. The engines are trix)le expansion, and the boats are 
noted for their economical service. The Company also 
builds the iron steamers which carry the cars across the 
Detroit river and the Straits of Mackinac, keeping a way 
clear in winter through the thickest ice. The business of 
the Company amounts to upwards of $1,500,000 a year. 
The President is Hon. John Owen 5 the consulting and con- 
structing engineer is Frank E. Kirby ; and the Secretary 
and Treasurer is Alexander M(?Vittie. As many as 800 men 
are at times employed in the three yards operated by the 
Company. 

In wire and iron working Detroit has long been pre- 
eminent ; and the National, the Michigan and the E. T. 
Barnnm Company have a large trade throughout the United 
States and are pushing in to Mexico. They manufacture 
iron fences, office and jail furniture, and all kinds of archi- 
tectural work. 

Detroit makes one-sixth of the pins used in the United 
States, the National Pin Company of this city being one 
of the fourteen factories for the manufacture of this small 
but useful commodity. Three million pins a day is the 



46 PINS, LEATHER, CHAIRS, TRUNKS. 



•output. The machinery used is largely original, and is 
very costly and interesting. Fifty men are employed, and 
two thousand pounds of wire is daily made up into pins 
for use in banks, offices, and for the toilet. Dexter M. 
Ferry is the ju'esideiit. 

Croul lirotlu'rs employ sixty men in the manufacture of 
leather for harnesses and belting, and their trade is distri- 
buted all over the country. 

The ( "a 1 vert Lithograph and Engraving Comi>any employ 
two hundred and fifty men in designing and printing The 
stove, tobacco and other manufactnres of Detroit give the 
house a large local trade ; and l)esides this they do busi- 
ness for lii-ms all over the country. 

M. J. Murphy & Company, manufactiu-e chairs, woven 
wire mattre^sses and spring beds ; they employ three hun- 
dred and seventy-five men, and turn out twelve hundred 
chairs, one hundred mattresses and one hundred spring 
beds daily. The Detroit House of Correction, under the 
superintendence of Captain Joseph Nicholson, more than 
pays its expenses by the manutacture of chaii-s. The 
Detroit product in this line reaches $750,000. 

The two large trunk fsictories of Martin Maier & Co. 
and William Brown, manufacture all kinds of trunks, 
satchels and sample cases, their combined product reaching 
$275,000. 

Detroit has recently taken up the business of manufac- 
turing radiators for steam and hot water heating, and the 
product of the two foundries is sold from one end of the 
country to the other. The Detroit Radiator Company, of 
which George H. Eussel is president, employs one hundred 



VARIOUS MANUFACTURES. 



47 



and twenty-five men and produces seven hundred and fifty 
thousand square feet of radiators every year. The Michigan 
Eadiator and Iron Manufacturing Company, John B. Dyar, 
president, employs three hundred and fifty men to make two 
and a half millions square feet of radiators. The designs of 
the radiators for house and office use are such as to make 
them unobtrusive if not actually ornamental. 

Anu)ng the other leading articles of Detroit manufacture 
are crackers, *800,0()(); clothing, .12,000,000; soap, 1250,000; 
candy, *900,000 ; matches, .|400,000 ; beer, $1,775,000; malt, 
11,000,000; brick, !i«375,000 ; billiard tables, 125,000 ; agri- 
cultural implements, $-100,000 ; paper stock, (Detroit Sul- 
phate Fibre Company), f ,'501), 000; barrels, (Anchor Manu- 
facturing Company), $500,000 ; burial caskets, $500,000 ; 
passenger cars, (Pullman Car Company), $800,000. 




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